Toasted and Pale
by KurasuAyame
Summary: RxML;Yaoi, rating may rise. Malik is having a hard time justifying life in general, justifying lust and love is a whole different story. Secure and safe only with his friend, Malik wonders if skin can be safe against skin. Toasted and pale.
1. Goosebumps

*Authors note: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.but hopefully you knew that. If I did, it wouldn't be on a children's network that airs on Saturday mornings.because if I owned it, the yaoi would be.well you get it. Anyway, here's the Prologue. It's short, but that's because I'm working so very hard on your next chapter.yeh.right.  
  
The cat mewed again, curving it's back upwards as it rubbed against his right pant leg. He lifted his head questioningly, which was buried in his arms as he wept. He decided he liked cats.white ones were especially comforting. He reached his hand out weakly to pet it. Harsh metal clanked against the concrete ground in response, restraints that disallowed his fingers to caress the kitten's silky pearl coat. It cried in distress, rubbing harder against his leg.  
  
"Ah.stop." He groaned with guilt, begging the cat to either come closer or leave him alone. Instead it reached it's front paws up to rest on his knee. He smiled at the feline's curious blue eyes. What are you up to? The cat seemed to hear him, all to happy to explain. It unsheathed it's long claws, embedding them into his knee. They ripped through his black jeans, and he yelped in surprise.  
  
"Mr. Ishtar!" the teacher exclaimed, slamming his book down on the desk. Malik opened his eyes to a blurry and obscure blue shape. His back ached from hunching over on the desk face, his cheek glued onto the cool mock-wood top by this time. Blinking a few times he comprehended the blue figure was that of Ryou's backpack. He peeled his face from the desktop, resulting in a sound that commanded a slight rise of laughter from the class. He rubbed his cheek gently, grazing his fingertips over clammy skin. It was then that he eyed the large oval of condensation that his warm exhaling had created. Sitting up straight, he attempted effacing the moisture with his hand, only succeeding in making a larger smear. His face contorted in aggravation even more so at the sight of the teacher's shadow looming over the tile floor. I'm gonna get worked.  
  
The cafeteria was crowded as usual, even if it was 15 minutes after the lunch bell. Bags clogged up the aisles to the serving line; getting in between the tables without breaking his neck would be a challenge in his zombie state. After charging into battle to claim his cheesy potatoes, noodles, and biscuit, Malik squinted in hopes it would help him spot a familiar table. Concentrated on seeking them out over the clatter of trays beating their waste of undescribables against the garbage cans, eventually a generous thin hand shot up and waved around amongst the swarm of ignorant carnivores. Ryou, Ryou, Ryou.everything will be bearable after Ryou.his mind told him as another idiot slammed into his shoulder.  
  
"So you survived? When will the bloody imprisonment be?" Ryou said with an all to comforting grin of innocence, trying so hard to sound harsh and mean about the educational system he truthfully found quite agreeable to his tastes. At this Malik smiled, and the thought of whether or not slamming his tray on the table and spraying potatoes everywhere left him. He sat down and rested his chin on his elbow, a look of impending and eternal torture spread across his face. It made Ryou giggle, and that made his in-school suspension earned from one to many unconscious learning periods worth the while. Sticking his small yellow milk straw behind his ear and pretending to be Ms. Russell worked even better. He put on a guise voice and reiterated, "And if you insist on failing my class by sleeping through it, at least learn to be silent during your nightmares!"  
  
Ryou laughed whole-heartedly, then cut short. "Nightmares? Did you have one? Malik-chan." Malik had been shaking his head and looking down. He wasn't about to tell Ryou about some juvenile phobia of cute kitties with idle claws of death.after all, Ryou loved kitties. Then came that name, the name Malik would have beaten the shit out of anyone else who had used it. For some reason, coming from his meek, mousy, white-haired best friend.made him get goosebumps. 


	2. Snowy Solitude

*Author's Note: Thank you for your R/R's.glad you liked the prologue. It was short, but the chapters to come will make up for it. Enjoy. Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did, terrible and perverted things would happen, it would get kicked out of WB's line-up.etc etc.  
  
Status: Yaoi, Angst, sexual reference, all that good stuff. More intense as the story goes on. you've been warned!  
  
God it's cold out. he thought as he stepped out onto his frost-covered porch. He stood there silently for a second, his silvery locks blowing in the wind so beautifully that for a second everything seemed as if it was being portrayed rather than lived. The dramatic, snowy moment ended when his inner debate consisting of whether or not to go back in a grab a heavier jacket was denied.  
  
Why did I come out here anyway? Am I really that pathetic, waiting for his bike to round the corner and resisting any other form of contentment until my surreal desires are realize? What is it I want? He sat down on his stone steps, ignoring the cold sensation of melting ice seeping into his pant leg. He said he'd come over to cheer me up today, after my suspension and all.what's keeping him?  
  
"Stop it!" he screamed, startled at the loud harshness in his self- criticizing tone. He wasn't the only one who jumped. It was that cat again, that adorable white kitten. He seemed as if he was born underneath the snow, phasing from moisture to ice, then rising up from the powder as a creature on a mission to comfort those in dire need. But hadn't he dreamed it? It hadn't been real. yet there those blue eyes floated; amongst the indistinguishable blur of ivory they continued to study him. The kitten took a step forward, Malik raising his hand to beckon it closer. But it's paw was swallowed by the deep snow, and the kitten fell despite it's reflexes. Malik watched on, as if he was as frozen by the incident as the shards of ice that dripped water from his rooftop. The cat sunk, and sunk, until it's little head dissapeared. Gone again. Good Ra did that joint Bakura and Marik were smoking yesterday get something into my system? I need a shrink. Wish granted.  
  
"Brrrrinnggggggg....bbrrriinnnnngggg..." The phone seemed to roar indignantly, quite unsatisfied by the peaceful tranquility. Malik leapt from the steps, his feet screeching as they found no grip in between wet, rubber soles and soaked, icy concrete. He heard the repercussions of his back and head thundering down against the rocky earth, his whole body seemed to vibrate numbly for a second. "Shit!" he groaned as the wave of dull, fire-like aching creeped from the back of his skull, down to his spine. He rubbed his naturally over-tanned elbow, then noticed the phone was still ringing. "Aaah. double shit." He willed himself to sit up, noting that if he hadn't been so key on moping in depressing snow solitude he wouldn't have slipped in the first place. Swinging the door open he threw himself at the phone, tripping over the rug and slamming into the hard wood floor and the recliner. "..Ryou?"  
  
"BERRRRRR, wrong answer. Where's your better half, loser? Wait.worse half? I can never remember." Bakura's sultry and all too cocky voice leaked it's way through the ear piece. Malik found his cruelty seemed too sexual in itself. Lucky bastard.  
  
"Not sure. Got home from school late. Penitentiary duty."  
  
"Really? I didn't know you had it in you. Two times in one semester, I've had a bad influence. I take pride in the very idea. If you want I could bring over some beer, beep Marik, and snatch Ryou's stash of old crappy Pac Man games?"  
  
Malik stuttered at the thought, "Ermm, no Baku that's alright. I'm doing some study work with Joey in an hour. Maybe some other time? I'll promise some slasher zombie flicks."  
  
"Ah, you're hopeless. Deal all the same. Wait, studying right? Studying and Katsuya don't go toget-"  
  
"Bye!" The reciever click brought a sigh of relief. Too bad another ring followed right after. "Look asshole, not right now okay!! Besides, Kaiba's coming and he's my only hope to pass Trig!"  
  
".Are we day dreaming again, Ishtar?" Seto's voice had a certain chill to it, one that always seemed to give off that he knew your situation better than you did, but enjoyed toying with your fragile stupidity anyway. Fuck. Do you people have some kind of alarm system set up so that when I don't feel like making physical contact, a buzzer goes off?  
  
"Oh, hey Seto. What is it?"  
  
"I'm relaying a message. The pack of mangy dogs, in it's entirety, came to my house this afternoon. Had some new V.R. equipment, wanted to guinea pig people who I'd enjoy watching the experiment take place on. Just let your mouse out of his cage, he wanted to let you know he's on his way. One moment.." Malik heard yelling in the background; Kaiba sounded horrifyingly 20 years older and authoritative when angry, "Mokuba, put it down now. No Joey! Lord, Yugi, don't try, you'll kill yourself. As much as I'd enjoy watching your deaths unfold before my eyes, that rug is a Persian import you're standing on. It would be a shame to. damnit why do I try. Don't TOSS the expensive technology please.." There was a click, and for the second time Malik escaped the phone. Only this time with more information than before. Ryou was coming. and as unsure as he was of his own plans, surely something would happen to end this occursed twitchy feeling of depression he was having. right? 


End file.
